whomad1215It's not random. This Mitchell & Johnson GL2 is basically a rebadge of a much cheaper headphone (the CyberDrive ones he linked). The CyberDrive ones are probably rebadges, too—who actually manufactures them, I have no idea. I've never seen these before now.
That being said, the SHARKK Bravo—I don't think was a rebadge, unless there's information I'm unaware of. As far as I know, it was a crowdfunded headphone that was stupid overpriced ($199 for early backers) and claimed to be a great Electrostatic headphone. At $29.99, it might not be a bad buy, but it definitely did not live up to the claims at $199+.
UPDATE:
Yep, even the SHARKK is a rebadge. From The Verge (https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/7/20/12235488/sharkk-bravo-headphones-indiegogo-launch):
I unraveled this mini-mystery by looking up the Hybrid Electrostatz tech used within the Bravo, which turns out to have been designed by a whole other company, the Taiwanese Verisonix, and is also being resold by the London-based Mitchell & Johnson. So you don't have to worry about Sharkk being as sloppy with its engineering as it is with its marketing — the company is simply rebadging and recasing an established bit of technology. And honestly, Sharkk deserves some credit for the design of the Bravo, which has a rather unique look, two sets of extremely comfortable ear pads, a very flexible headband, and reasonably compact dimensions for the tech it contains. It's almost all plastic, but it's well done.
The Verge says that Sharkk deserves some credit for the design, but if you look up the Verisonix N100B, it looks the exact same as the Sharkk Bravo:
http://www.verisonix.com/n100b.html
As for the Mitchell & Johnson versions, they are the Verisonix I502C found here:
http://www.verisonix.com/i502c.html
XephyrothGood work here. If you decide to write a blog about who is manufacturing re-branded headphones, count me in. I was recently in Stockholm, Sweden and I couldn’t figure out why EVERYone was wearing Marshall headphones. Turns out the brand is owned by a Swedish company. Pfffft!
MontyBurnsIt's pretty interesting to see all of these rebadges out there. There are some pretty impressive manufacturers out there who just don't do their own marketing, so they end up taking contracts with companies who have decent marketing strategies. So for example, Brainwavz gets a lot of credit for the HM5, but it's just a rebadge of the CD-880—a headphone manufactured by Yoga Electronics.
MontyBurnsYeah, if Massdrop was often selling popular rebadges, it could certainly make more sense to work with the manufacturer directly. But rebadges like the HM5 aren't popular on Massdrop, to begin with. If it was, I feel as though Massdrop would have cut out the middle man and made their own rebadge.
brainwaveThanks, I got the Sharkk one for $30. Better than spending $200 and find out it doesn't work well. (The amazon review on this GL2 is worse than the Sharkk.) I am surprised there are brave souls that actually join this drop... but people can spend their money in whatever way they want...